"And what would you say if I called on you now and said that I can't go on?"

Dana Scully turned down the music on the stereo and slipped the chunky cordless phone receiver into the nook between shoulder and neck, still holding William in her arms. An automated voice told her to press one to accept the charges, or say 'yes'.

"Yes."

"Hey."

"Hey."

"I was worried that you wouldn't accept the charges." Mulder didn't sound especially worried, though. He sounded a little happy, and a lot far away.

"You owe me," she replied.

"Sorry, my cel phone crapped out once we got over the border-must be the mountains, or something." He didn't sound all that concerned.

"Mountains, Mulder?" she sounded skeptical, and knew it was an automatic response that, after eight years, she was helpless to control. "Where are you?"

"Beats me, Scully, I just got here. Hang on a minute." There followed a smothered murmur that Scully couldn't make out, then another one, sounding gruffer, and then Mulder was back. "You still there, Scully?" When she made an affirmative noise, he continued. "We're in Jasper."

"Jasper, Alberta?"

"That's the one."

"Why?"

"I don't exactly know, Scully.  I think Walter intends to feed me to the mountain goats—OW! Scully, he hit me."

She could almost see Walter Skinner smacking his lover on the ass, hard enough to startle, not hard enough to hurt, and she could definitely picture him grinning while he did it. 

"And this affects me how?"

"Aw, man, where am I supposed to go for comfort and unconditional love now that you're giving all yours to Baby Bill?"

She smiled down at the bundle in her arms, and settled baby, phone and herself into the rocker by the window. 

"I think you already know the answer to that one, Mulder…even if he doesn't always show it the way you need him to."

"Hey," he protested, "I am not the needy one on this vacation."

"Oh?"

"Stop arching your eyebrow at me, Scully, the operator charges extra for non-verbal sarcasm here in Canada."

She thought that she could have pursued it, but the question of who needed who in her partner's relationship with Walter Skinner was one that she didn't think either man wanted to answer too fully at this point, so she paused to re-adjust the phone, took up a smooth rocking motion that caused William's eyes to glaze over and then slip closed, and steered the conversation away from Mulder's neediness, or lack thereof.

"So, Jasper, huh? Pretty far from D.C., Mulder."

"Yeah," he agreed with something like homesickness in his tone. "But they have a Domino's here. And I think we'll go into Calgary tomorrow."

"At this rate, Mulder, you two will be in Nunavik by the end of the month." She kept her words light, but knew that she missed him—missed both of them—and that he would pick up on that without her saying so.

"He only took two weeks off, Scully. And besides, I think he's—hey! Stop that! Walter, quit it!"

She thought she could make out the word "puppy" over the scuffling noises on the other end of the phone, and then she thought she heard giggling. Neither one of these things made sense to her, nor could she attribute them to her perceived notions of either man. 

"Mulder? Should I be hearing this?" A vision crept into her mind unbidden, one so obscene she blushed even alone in her apartment, and shook her head to clear it, nearly dislodging both phone and baby. One of them she soothed with a wordless murmur, the other she clamped more firmly to her ear. "Mulder? Hello?"

"Scully, it's Walter."

"Sir…Walter…How—how are you?" She was a bit startled to hear his voice.

"Well, Dana, I haven't completely snapped yet," he told her, his characteristic growl completely missing, and she wondered again about the short scuffle that had put him on the phone.  Another blush, and she smiled at herself, feeling a little silly.

"Despite the company?"

He laughed, and she thought she came a little closer to understanding Mulder's attraction to him.

"Indeed." His tone turned more serious. "I just wanted to assure you that I'll be back in a week, and I'm pretty sure he'll be with me."

"Unless you feed him to the goats."

Another laugh. "Unless I feed him to the goats," he agreed. "How are you holding up, Dana? How's the baby?"

"Good and good, sir—Walter." She hadn't quite kicked the habit of making him her boss in every encounter, instead of her friend, but she was working on it.

"And Agent Doggett? He's keeping up with everything? Doing his damnedest to put that bastard Kersh in intensive care, I hope." There was the growl she'd expected, and she thought that between the three of them, Walter's resentment of the man who had ascended to the deputy directorship was the strongest. She thought maybe it was because of his treatment of her and Mulder, and then she wondered if there wasn't something else going on there. She realized he was waiting for a reply, and turned her attention back to the phone. William yawned and twisted in her arms, one chubby hand going into his mouth instinctively. Maybe the baby was Mulder's…

There was an unrealized laugh in her voice when she answered. "Agent Doggett is being tenacious in his investigation, sir. Must be something in the air in the basement."

They laughed together at that, and then she heard more scuffling sounds, and someone breathing close to the phone.

"Well, that's good then. I guess we'll be seeing you in about a week, Dana."

"Thanks for calling, Walter." She felt that tug again, the one that said the two people closest to her heart were also currently the one's furthest away. "I miss you two," she confessed suddenly.

"We miss you, too," his tone sounded drier, but Scully knew him well enough to understand the depth behind the words. From the background she heard Mulder yell, "I love you, Scully!"

She and Walter shared another laugh, this one full of love for Mulder, and he said goodbye.

Scully lifted one hand from the baby to disconnect the phone. She thought she should put William to bed, since he was now sound asleep, but for the moment it just felt good to sit and rock and smile at her baby, while she sent warm thoughts to Mulder and Walter, hoping that one or the other might have a psychic moment and know she was thinking of them, and also hoping fervently that neither one got eaten by goats.